Day 77 | Royal Hut
29 December 2022 | 22°C | 27km
The highest point of the Te Araroa is on our way today. The biggest challenge of the day though is once again: way finding. The morning starts easy over a plateau offering awesome views of snow covered mountains. Not entirely sure but it looks like one of these is Mount Cook from the back.
After lunch we get off track twice when first a totally misplaced sign leads us onto a trail that would suddenly disappear and - shortly after being back on track again - inadvertently turn of a four wheel drive road without any signage. Not even the slightest trace of a trail is visible.
I get a bit tired after all these detours and start listening to some music to stay motivated. The climb to the saddle is long but gradual and not too steep and the views some of the best of the trail so far I feel. It’s bloody windy at the highest point (only 1.900m actually) so we head down soon after taking a last look back to the lake and an impressive mountain range. From two hikers at the top, we learned that the next hut is already full but we planned to hike further anyway.
Easier said than done! The trail is steep, overgrown, sometimes invisible and involves crossing a small steam several times. Progress is slow and once we reach Royal Hut we are pretty sore. We say hi to the people in the hut and pitch our tents just 1 km further up the trail.
